


Between Heaven and Earth

by EHyde



Category: Akatsuki no Yona | Yona of the Dawn
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Four Dragon Gods (minor roles), Ik-su (minor role), Yun (minor role), dragon god Yona, hypothetical ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-17
Updated: 2018-03-17
Packaged: 2019-04-01 10:00:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13995870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EHyde/pseuds/EHyde
Summary: Yona ascended as a god to the heavens. Hak waits below, on earth.





	Between Heaven and Earth

“Thunder Beast, you’re a mess.”

Hak didn’t bother trying to deny it. The first two nights after Yona’s departure, the dragons at least were still here, their presence by his side at night enough to lull him into a fitful, restless sleep. Eventually. But they had departed yesterday, and last night, Hak didn’t sleep at all.

“Hak,” Yun began, “I think you should leave, too. Don’t keep doing this to yourself. You–you know she’s not coming back.” Tears filled his eyes as he spoke. The young boy who always tried to take care of everyone was barely holding himself together, but Hak didn’t have any comfort to offer Yun.

The four dragons had left Ik-su’s house no longer dragons at all, but four normal humans with full, long–or in Zeno’s case, short–lives ahead of them. And as the price of this freedom, Yona would never be with them again. The gods in heaven had given her one way, and one way only, to break the bond of dragons’ blood–for as a god in heaven, Hiryuu would never again need protectors on earth.

Hak wanted to be happy for his friends, didn’t want to resent them for it. But he wasn’t an idiot. He knew why they left, and why they didn’t ask him to join them. “I can’t leave yet,” he said. “Not until I hear something.”

“Hak,” Yun repeated. “Be like this to yourself if you have to, but let Ik-su be.”

“If Yona is a god, then he should be able to hear her,” Hak insisted. “I’m not leaving until I know she’s safe.” Saying it like that sounded ridiculous. But  _ascended to the heavens_  felt too much like  _died_  when all it meant for him was that Yona was gone.

“I’m not a priest,” said Yun, “but I’ve spent enough time around Ik-su to know–gods aren’t humans. They don’t think the same. And that’s Yona now. She didn’t just give up being human, she gave up her humanity, just like the dragons wanted Hiryuu to do in the story.”

“Don’t—”

“I’m just saying,” Yun warned, “you might not like what you hear. She already said goodbye.”

And when Yona’s goodbye was made of those words he never expected to hear from her, how could he just let her go? How could he be content thinking of her as a distant god in the heavens, a dragon watching from above, when she left him with the memory of a human girl who cried  _I love you,_  who kissed him and clung to his embrace until she dissolved in a pillar of light?

If she had truly meant to leave him with nothing, surely she wouldn’t have left him with that!

As Hak opened his mouth to tell Yun as much, Ik-su stumbled out of his hut, eyes wide, blinking against the bright morning sun. “Priest. What—?”

In answer, Ik-su simply raised an arm and pointed. Hak ran, until he found himself atop a cliff, above that same waterfall where Ik-su had delivered that fateful prophecy what felt like a lifetime ago. Rainbows shone in the misty spray, but surely Ik-su had wanted him to see more than that.

Wait. That thunder was more than the sound of crashing water.

The noise grew louder, the waterfall’s rainbows shifted in hue until all he could see was red. Then the clouds above parted, and a dragon appeared.

Hak fell to his knees and stared up at her in awe. “Yona…” Calling her  _princess_  wasn’t nearly enough, not for the god before him, but he didn’t know what to say instead.

“Yes,” the dragon rumbled down at him. “That was my name.” To say her voice was nothing like Yona’s would be an understatement, and missed the point entirely. Neither soft nor deep, echoing in his mind as much as in his ears, her voice wasn’t human at all. And her words–she was much as said she wasn’t the Yona he knew.

“Yona!” Hak repeated, desperate.

“I remember you.” The dragon’s great body twisted through the sky as she lowered her head to peer down at him. “I remember that of all of humankind, you were the one I came to love the most.” And yet those words, which should have meant the world to Hak, felt so cold and distant. Was Yun right? “Human,” said Yona–no, Hiryuu. He would think of her as Hiryuu now. As if that would make this hurt any less. “When I became human, I forgot much of what it was to be a god. Now, I begin to forget the finer points of humanity. But still I remember enough. I never wished to return to the heavens.” She stretched out an arm, claws gripping something that didn’t quite exist. “My brothers will not allow me to return to earth without protection. I cannot ask the generations to bear that burden again, but Hak, there is a way.” His heart skipped a beat as she spoke his name. Was there something left, after all? Then the object clutched in her claws coalesced into a plain cup filled with a dark liquid, and Hak’s eyes widened as he realized what was being offered. “Become my other half. With Hiryuu as your master, promise to protect, cherish, and never betray me for as long as you live.”

Hak hesitated only for an instant as the full meaning sunk in. That fate which she fought to spare the four dragons from would be his now–but it would be his by choice. He reached for the dragon’s blood and swallowed the bitter cup down in one gulp.

Even Kija’s description couldn’t have prepared Hak for what came next. Fire coursed through his veins as his blood seemed to flow backwards, and in that blaze of power he felt closer to Yona than he ever had before. He could barely move, but he wanted to hold onto this feeling, to keep it, to keep her, with him forever. And then, as quick as it came, it was gone.

He blinked back up at Hiryuu. She hadn’t changed. Had–had he? He couldn’t feel anything like scales or stranger powers–at least, he didn’t think so. “I’m sorry,” said the dragon. “I never wished to bind you to me.”

“We had this conversation before,” said Hak. “Orders or not, dragon blood or not, I want to be by your side. I never wanted anything else.” But it was Yona he longed for, not this god…who seemed more and more like Yona the more she spoke. He’d taken the blood. Didn’t that mean she could come back?

But Hiryuu drew back into the sky, the coils of her body twisting through the mists and clouds. Red light shone all around her and she seemed to be fading away entirely, her form passing into a realm Hak’s human eyes couldn’t pierce. “No!” He rushed forward, reaching out as if he could possibly hope to hold her again–and out of the mist, barefoot on the stone cliff, stepped Yona. Perfect, human Yona.

“Hak!” she cried, running into his arms.

“Yona,” he breathed–then flushed hot as he registered the fact that she was naked. He stepped back and wrapped his jacket around her. “Yona, is this real?”

“It’s real,” she assured him. “This is my home now. Not the heavens. No one can change that now.” A thunderous roar rose up around them, and Yona narrowed her eyes. “Though they may try.”

The awe that had filled Hak when the red dragon appeared was nothing compared to seeing four at once. Hak instinctively drew back, but Yona didn’t flinch. “Hiryuu,” the dragons roared in unison. “This is not what we agreed. This man is but a weak human.” Then the blood she had given him—

The four dragons turned their glares on Hak. “You agreed to protect Hiryuu as a dragon warrior. We will be gracious. We will give you another chance, and allow you to choose.”

“No!” Arms stretched wide, Yona stepped in front of Hak. “I told you I would offer him my blood. I never promised to bind him to me, or grant him any power. I broke no agreement, only your own assumptions.” The four dragon gods looked to each other, then back down at Yona. “You saw that he was willing. And you’ve seen Hak protect me with his life before, many times. Kija and Shinah and Jaeha and Zeno will still protect me as ordinary humans too, I’m sure of it, and Yun, and Lili, and—” She took a deep breath. “Brothers,” she said. “I have lived two human lives. Please trust me in this–Hak is the one I want by my side, exactly as he is.”

Slowly, the four dragon gods nodded, then faded back into the sky above. Yona turned around to face Hak. “Hak, I—”

He bent down and hissed her on the lips. “You came back.”

“I never wanted to leave. But the dragons–I had to do something—”

Hak nodded. He understood. When they’d learned the full truth of the dragons’ powers, he’d cursed his inability to help. Yona had gone straight to Ik-su and demanded answers, and hadn’t once shied away from the only thing she could do to break their curse. “And you did it, and you tricked four gods, and you came back.” But she hadn’t come back unchanged. “You…you still remember that? Being a god, and your past life?”

Yona looked down. “It’ll fade away, I think. I’ll be the Yona you knew.”

“Yona.” He took both her hands and held her violet gaze in his. “I think you’ve just shown that you’ll always be the Yona I know, no matter what.” He reached for his jacket where it had started to fall off her shoulder, and straightened it again. Such a tiny thing, to stand against both heaven and earth. He’d had the privilege of seeing the strength of her soul with his own eyes now, and felt its power coursing through his veins, but hadn’t he always known of that inner strength?

Then she leaned into his chest, and he sighed. For all that strength, she relied on him, too. “We’ll protect each other,” he murmured softly. “Just two human beings.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I'm [fallenwithstyle](http://fallenwithstyle.tumblr.com) on tumblr if you'd like to come say hi.


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